April 15, 2017 by

Discrimination

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In lieu of recent events, I thought that I would make my first post of the semester about the political and social turmoil going on in the United States, and how its affecting hundreds of millions across the world. As we all know, Donald Trump is the 45th president of the United States, and has caused a lot of controversy since his one month in office. The more prominent of his decisions would be the Muslim ban – which prohibits people from various muslim (middle eastern) countries to enter into the U.S., regardless if they are an American citizen or not.

Now, as a young Muslim woman living in Canada, I feel incredibly grateful to live in a country that accepts my faith and also respects my choice to practice my faith. I feel heartbroken by President Trump’s actions, and how he is only creating divisions amongst people. Throughout history, we as a people have learned our mistakes and we always say “Don’t let history repeat itself.” but with the recent election I feel like we are only going back in time.

To me, it seems impossible to discriminate people of colour (who make up a large population in the U.S.) and to be able to justify that my actions are for the people. President Trump is only bringing stereotypes back into mainstream media, and his actions seem to be defined by these stereotypes which shows how narrow-minded a person can be. To believe that all Muslims are terrorists shows that the person is ignorant, and needs to educate themselves in the Islamic faith.

Islam is a peaceful religion, and no where does it promote or encourage violence of any sorts. The word Islam means peace, and it makes me angry when people assume that Islam is a religion of violence and war. It makes me really angry because they are not crossing that barrier of ignorance, and they are the ones that are clouding other peoples judgements. I am proud to be a Muslim woman, but I am also scared as to what may happen in the future. I am scared that things will only get worse from here, and that Muslims and people of colour will be discriminated even more.

However, I do believe that the media has a very manipulative way to always blame an attack on Islamic groups, and to paint the picture that all Muslims are terrorists, and from a personal perspective, I have never been bullied or discriminated based on the colour of my skin or the fact that I choose to wear a scarf. However, there was an instance over the summer when I was in Germany, and I went to the grocery store with my aunt, and I noticed how big of a difference there was in the environment. Here in Canada, I walk into a grocery store and no one cares that I have walked in, they are minding their own business. However, in Germany, when I walked into that grocery store I got stares from every single person, and they wouldn’t stop! I was shocked because I had never experienced something like that, and it made me realize the amount of ignorance that people hold. I myself am ignorant to many things, and it isn’t my fault, it’s just that I have no knowledge about many things but I am willing to attain that knowledge. I am willing to step over that barrier of ignorance, but a lot of people around the world are not like that and only rely on the media to feed them information.

I went all across Europe for 6 weeks, and aside from the instances in the grocery stores in Germany, I did not feel any other discrimination. I even went to France, where there have been 3 terrorist attacks in the past 3 years, and there has been a ban on the burqa. But people just minded their own business, and I am not saying that there isn’t social unrest, because there is. There are people in France who are Muslim and have been discriminated by the fact that they wish to wear a burqa, or the more recent one – the burqini.

I do believe that there is social unrest, but I feel like the media has such an influence in our lives that it is starting to influence the actions of people such as police officers, and they are the ones that are being discriminatory now and it’s causing social unrest in countries. It reflects how unjust our system really is, and how police officers need to be reminded and regulated that they cannot be discriminatory on a person based on their colour and religious background. It shows how quickly people jump to assumptions without even asking or learning about what they are ignorant about.

To end this post off, I would just like to say how people have reacted in spite of the recent events in the U.S. warms my heart. There are hundreds of thousands of people who are out in the streets protesting this Muslim ban, and ironically it is bringing people together and unifying them. I only hope and wish that in the future, opportunity and choice will not be judged by the colour of ones skin or their religious background. I hope that people are more willing to come over that barrier of ignorance, and to educate themselves and those around them, and to put an emphasis on acquiring knowledge.

One Response to Discrimination

  1. simranparmar

    Dear Daania,

    I love how passionate you are about the topic of discrimination and how you you are not afraid to voice your opinion on this matter. Throughout this piece, I like how you mentioned how media has the power to influence us in ways; however, we should be smarter and educate ourselves properly. Personally, I believe discrimination will always happen in this world; however, if we have passionate people like you, then we will be able to decrease that amount significantly.

    To improve this piece I would suggest adding your own personal experiences with discrimination. I feel if you were to add that information then it will help get the message across even better and touch the hearts of many more individuals.

    Overall, I love reading your work that has so much passion in it and look forward to read more of your work.

    Yours Truly,
    Simran

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